But what about the modification of background sound? Can increasing work productivity really be as simple as playing specific types of sounds or music?

It turns out that both nature sounds and music have been found to have beneficial effects on the job.

Let’s start with nature sounds.

Nature Sounds

The Acoustical Society of America presented findings showing that employees can get more done and feel more positive at work when nature sounds are playing in the background.

The study consisted of three sessions in the same room, where researchers had participants complete tests while listening to varied soundscapes. Each session had a different type of sound playing in the background, as follows:

First session: office sounds muffled by white noise

Second session: office sounds muffled by nature sounds

Third session: office sounds with no masking noise

The results? The workers performed better on the tests when listening to nature sounds and also felt more optimistic about the setting and the task.

The nature sounds were also much preferred over the white noise even though white noise presented a similar masking effect.